This invention relates generally to locking and securing devices, and more particularly to a device for locking and securing a cover of a utility wire box in place.
Utility wire pull boxes are located throughout a community buried generally flush with the ground and are spaced apart periodically to facilitate pulling electrical and/or telephone wiring through limited lengths of submerged conduit. Each length of electrical wire is then connected to the subsequent length at a joint made within each pull box. Thereafter, a cover is utilized to conceal the contents of each pull box.
The covers may be fabricated of reinforced concrete as within a sidewalk or ground area, or may be fabricated of a downwardly flanged steel plate for installations where the pull box is located in a roadway.
Those desperate for illegal money have resorted to the easy removal of these covers and then the utilization of a vehicle such as a pick-up truck to pull the electrical wiring from the conduit. The copper contained within the electrical wiring is then converted to cash based upon its scrap value. No means is yet known for preventing such unauthorized removal.
The reinstallation of stolen electrical wiring in these conduit is becoming an expensive and disruptive process for utility services and this pilfering and thievery is being accomplished despite the fact that the covers are normally held in place by threaded fasteners or the like.
The present invention provides for a means for securing these covers in place so as to prevent their unauthorized removal and, thereafter easy access to the electrical wiring contained within the conduit between each of these pull boxes.